The Lancet Admits Its Error

Three years after its libel against Israel, the medical journal sets things right.

The Lancet, one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, is currently featuring a special edition devoted to Israel’s world-class medical establishment. As well as being informative, this latest issue is also a remarkable act of atonement for a terrible wrong the journal did to the Jewish state three years ago.

This unusual story starts in July 2014 when, after enduring near-constant rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel’s army (the IDF) fought back, destroying missile launchers and other military targets in several weeks of fierce fighting that were dubbed Operation Protective Edge. During the conflict, nearly 5,000 missiles rained down on Israeli towns. 66 Israeli soldiers were killed, as were six Israeli civilians, including children. Israeli forces also discovered a network of terror tunnels leading from Gaza into the Jewish state. Hamas positioned its rocket launchers in civilian areas, including Al-Shifa Hospital. When Israeli forces dropped leaflets warning civilians to flee areas that were identified as military targets, Hamas ordered them to stay. Gazans, unsurprisingly, suffered large numbers of casualties: about 2,127, among both Hamas fighters and civilians.

The letter glorified Hamas, describing it as committed to resolving political conflicts “without arms and harm”.

During the fighting, The Lancet, Britain’s premier medical journal, decided to take the highly unusual step of entering the fray. In their July 30, 2014 edition, they published an “Open letter for the people in Gaza.” The letter, written by five prominent physicians and signed by 19 more, shocked many with its vicious tone and biased perspective.

Dr. Karl Skorecki, a senior staff member at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, was one of many physicians in Israel and across the world who was appalled by the letter’s hateful tone. In an Aish.com exclusive interview, Dr. Skorecki recalls it as a “one-sided, mean-spirited, ill-based attack that came from a place of hatred… It accused medical professionals in Israel of complicity in inhumane activity. It was demonizing.”

Making no mention of Hamas’ use of human shields, deliberate targeting of civilians, and practice of hiding missile launchers and weapons in schools and medical centers, the letter accused Israel of lying to creating an emergency, of “massacre”, and of harboring the bloodthirsty aim “to terrorize, wound the soul and the body”. The letter bizarrely glorified Hamas, describing it as committed to resolving political conflicts “without arms and harm”. Israel’s Ministry of Health described the letter as “bordering on blood libel”.

In the weeks after The Lancet published this screed, NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based watchdog group, revealed that the letter’s authors had links to anti-Semitic groups. Two had shared a video of David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, railing against Jews and Israel. One author had forwarded a message claiming that Jews and Zionists were behind the Boston marathon bombings; another author travelled to Gaza in a sign of solidarity during the fighting.

Prof. Richard Horton

The Lancet’s editor, Prof. Richard Horton, announced that while he “deeply regretted” the “completely unnecessary polarisation” the letter caused, he stopped short of condemning the letter itself, and kept it up on The Lancet’s website.

Invitation to Israel

Jewish doctors across Britain wrote to The Lancet. In Israel, medical school professors resigned from advisory boards associated with the journal. At Israel’s prestigious Rambam Hospital in Haifa, the staff, too, were outraged, and sent a letter of their own to The Lancet, which went unpublished. Instead of resigning themselves to anger, however, Rambam’s doctors and staff decided to take a different approach.

“Let’s invite him,” suggested Prof. Karl Skorecki, Rambam’s Director of Medical and Research Development, speaking of the editor responsible for publishing the letter. As Prof Rafael Beyar, the Director General of the hospital recalled, the staff liked Prof. Skorecki’s idea. “It seems like he doesn’t known man facts about this region,” the doctors noted. “He needs to see the reality of medical life in Israel.”

The best way for people to understand Israel’s predicament is to see it with their own eyes.

Dr. Skorecki, a native of Canada, moved to Israel with his wife because of his deep love for the Jewish people and the Jewish state. With relatives, friends and colleagues working in medical settings throughout Israel, including in the IDF, he understood that the complexity of Israel isn’t always understood by people abroad. “My experience has always been that the best way for people to understand Israel’s predicament is to see it with their own eyes,” he explains..

Dr. Karl Skorecki

He drafted a short letter to The Lancet editor Richard Horton, suggesting he see the situation in Israel with his own eyes before drawing any conclusions, and inviting him to visit the Jewish state. Dr. Horton, who had visited Gaza and the West Bank many times, but had never been invited to Israel before, accepted.

Eyes Wide Open

When Prof. Horton arrived at Haifa in September 2014, revelation after revelation awaited him. Rambam is the biggest hospital in northern Israel. As David Ratner, a hospital spokesman, told Aish.com, the hospital’s location in the north of Israel means that it treats many injured Syrians who cross over the border into Israel for medical care. Rambam also serves many Palestinians from the West Bank. Over a quarter of Rambam’s staff are Israeli Arabs. Over three days, Prof. Horton got to know the community in Rambam, and also met with Arab communities in the Israeli cities of Haifa, Acre and Tel Aviv, as well as with the Chief Rabbi of Acre.

One of the most moving moments came in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, where Dr. Horton visited the Western Galilee Medical Center and met its director, Dr. Masad Barhoum, an Israeli Arab who was proud to call himself Israeli. Dr. Horton was present at the moment a Syrian patient, who’d been brought into Israel to receive life-saving medical treatment, was having his bandages removed. The first person the Syrian patient saw was Dr. Horton, and he told him how grateful he was to Israel, how he’d been treated so lovingly in the Jewish state, and how happy he was to be in that hospital.

As he toured Israel’s north, Dr. Horton and Dr. Skorecki became close. The visit took place between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Dr. Skorecki explained that this is a time of introspection when the Jewish people review their shortcomings and resolve to do better in the future. He also explained the significance of Rambam Hospital’s namesake: the great 12th Century Jewish sage who wrote, among other topics, about the Jewish process of teshuvah, repentance. The first step to overcoming a past mistake, the Rambam wrote, is acknowledging our error.

“Admit, apologize, undertake steps to correct that wrong, undertake steps not to repeat that, and to rectify the wrong - I think that’s a much more Jewish way” of addressing mistakes, explained Dr. Skorecki.

Dr. Horton took it to heart.

Dr. Horton was invited to address all the staff at Rambam Hospital during Grand Rounds. He marveled at the “undeservedly” warm reception he received in the Jewish state and thanked Dr. Beyar and Dr. Skorecki for their incredible “courage, openness, and generosity of spirit” they displayed in reaching out to him, “in such circumstances”. During his visit, as an act of conciliation, Dr. Horton suggested having an issue of The Lancet to focus on Israel, sharing the complexity and beauty of the Jewish state he’d witnessed with readers around the world.

Prof. Horton wrote he “deeply, deeply regrets” his journal’s attack on the Jewish state.

After his visit, Prof. Horton wrote he “deeply, deeply regrets” his journal’s attack on the Jewish state. “At Rambam, I saw an inspiring model of partnership between Jews and Arabs….I saw Rambam offering an open hand, gladly grasped by families from Gaza, the West Bank and Syria who were living with life-threatening healthcare needs. I saw Rambam as one example of a vision for a peaceful and productive future between peoples, which I learned exists throughout Israel’s hospitals.” The open letter “did not convey the level of complexity that is the reality in Israel, and it’s that level of complexity which I saw last week, which having seen it, I want to build something...so that we never publish a letter like that again….What I saw (in Israel) directly contradicted that letter.” (Disappointingly, the letter remains on The Lancet’s website.)

Dr. Skorecki and his colleagues at Rambam Hospital and beyond continued to invite Dr. Horton to Israel, and he accepted their invitations, making numerous visits to the Jewish state and forging close professional bonds and personal friendships. After years of hard work and collaboration, the world was stunned on May 8, 2017, when The Lancet devoted an entire issue the Israeli healthcare system. Titled “Health in Israel”, the current edition contains ten articles written by Israeli doctors and medical school professors. Prof. Horton proudly termed it the most comprehensive independent survey of Israel’s healthcare system ever published.

The edition highlights some remarkable achievements of Israeli healthcare, including the steady rise in life expectancy (Israel now ranks fourth in the world for male life expectancy and 11th for women) and the fact that Israel has the lowest infant mortality rate in the OECD, a collection of 35 rich nations. Articles include “Digital health nation: Israel’s global big data innovation hub”, “Israel: a start-up life science nation”, and “Helping hands across a war-torn border: the Israeli medical effort treating casualties of the Syrian Civil War”.

Prof. Horton admitted his mistake and he’s not done yet. “The special issue on Israel will not be a one-time project,” Prof. Horton has promised. “It is the beginning of a close partnership.”

Featured at Aish.com:

About the Author

Yvette Alt Miller earned her B.A. at Harvard University. She completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Jewish Studies at Oxford University, and has a Ph.D. In International Relations from the London School of Economics. She lives with her family in Chicago, and has lectured internationally on Jewish topics. Her book Angels at the table: a Practical Guide to Celebrating Shabbat takes readers through the rituals of Shabbat and more, explaining the full beautiful spectrum of Jewish traditions with warmth and humor. It has been praised as "life-changing", a modern classic, and used in classes and discussion groups around the world.

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 12

(11)
Don Krausz,
May 26, 2017 12:34 PM

We have been, are and always will be a light unto the Nations.

Why are Jews unique, why continue to endure the hatred and suffering through the ages, why have we been spared when all the nations of antiquity were not? Is there really a God, a Design and Purpose to our existence?

I believe that this article about the Lancet answers that question.

A Holocaust Survivor.

(10)
Yehuda Poch,
May 21, 2017 7:18 AM

Yasher Koach

Yasher Koach to Prof. Karl Skorecki, a man who has for three decades (at least) been a quiet yet passionate activist for Jewish causes.

(9)
Tiberiu Ezri,
May 19, 2017 7:40 AM

The Save a Child׳s Heart project in Israel

First, I wish to congratulate the author for her excellent article!
Secondly I should remark that unfortunately, she missed to mention in the article that following his visit at Rambam, Prof. Horton visited the Wolfson Mediical Center, the place where thousands of children from over 50 developing countries underwent cardiac surgeries for free, funded by the philanthropic project "Save a Child's Heart" - SACH, founded and based in Israel.
Prof. Horton also visited the SACH house in Holon, the place the kids and their families are hosted also for free before and after surgery.
On November 1, 2014 we published in The Lancet a detailed letter about this project.
Tiberiu Ezri, MD

(8)
Deborah,
May 18, 2017 5:33 PM

An Uplifting Story

Good to see someone admit to their error and turn it into a positive.

(7)
Ken Woolfson,
May 17, 2017 11:09 AM

nice change

he admitted the Lancet was wrong. Horton did the right thing. I am tired of the negative attitude that comes out of the UK against the Jews and Israel. The world needs to open its eyes and stop listening to so much propaganda and hatred against Israel. There is so much ignorance and hatred in the world.

(6)
Anonymous,
May 16, 2017 7:40 PM

The letter should stay, like the mention of Amalek in Torah

No one suggests that all mention of Amalek be removed from Torah and the rest of Tanach. Those passages stand as a warning for all time, not just to Jews but to any and all who would pursue similar designs against the Jewish people. The same applies to the letter to Lancet. To remove the letter would diminish the full impact of the publication's Israel issue. Despite what the authors of that letter intended, the corrective reporting makes it a stark reminder of an ill-intended, blatantly fraudulent and ultimately futile attempt to demean a medical system that is truly an or lagoyim/light unto the nations.

(5)
Dina Lea),
May 16, 2017 5:27 PM

Kol Hakavod to Dr. Skorecki & Rambam Hospital

This is a fantastic way to counter anti Semitism and anti Israel biases. Educating with the truth. And, I wish I could get a copy of the Lancet emphasizing Israeli health care. (I'm a retired RN). Sadly, that the negative letter is still on their website, but perhaps, Prof. Horton needs a reminder to remove it. It may be forgotten. I hope that other physicians and nurses visit Israel and learn the truth on the cooperation and wonderful work that is done for patients, no matter who they are, Jew, Moslem Arab, Christian Arab, or those in need coming from Syria. We need more articles like this, not just on Aish.com, but in all other publications geared to non Jews as well. Note that during the war in Gaza, Israel even set up emergency clinics to care for those who where injured in Gaza. That's another story that needs to be told.

(4)
louis Lantner,
May 16, 2017 4:42 PM

a "must read" article

Outstanding article by Yvette Miller. Keep up your great and important work !

(3)
Anonymous,
May 16, 2017 4:23 PM

chachma

I am so proud of what the medical staff at Rambam did to combat the hatred and lies about our medical system and about our countryThey followed what the Rambam himself would have doneKol Hakavod ! Maybe we should follow this policy w/other hate mongers Its probably worth paying the fare

(2)
Dvirah,
May 16, 2017 4:20 PM

First Step

The issue on Israel is a good first step. Now let him take the next steps: (1) remove the oriignal letter from the Lancet's website and (2) denounce and refute with facts the lies about Israel whenever they appear in the medical literature.

(1)
Jeff,
May 16, 2017 3:33 PM

British reflex: be anti-Semitic and anti-Israel

No further comment needed.

Lee,
May 16, 2017 9:53 PM

...and keep the letter on the website. It is not a complete victory over anti-semitism until that letter is either taken down, or better, a retraction is printed beside it. In fact, this victory is hollow. Readers of AISH know the truth now; how many Lancet readers do?

I was born with a neuromuscular disease known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy and have been confined to a wheelchair my entire life. Unfortunately my sister and I were raised without any religious instruction or guidance. My father wasn't Jewish and although my mother is, she openly claims to be an atheist. The "good news" is that both my sister and myself - independent of each other and at different times in our lives - realized that we are Jewish and chose to live a Jewish life.

Because of my disability, I'm not always able to attend services on Shabbat, but I always light candles, pray from a Siddur and read the weekly Torah portion. I would like to know whether, considering my situation, if using a computer is allowed during the Sabbath? I found the complete Bible online and since my computer is voice-activated I don't have to struggle to turn pages or continuously ask for assistance.

Thank you to everyone at Aish.com for making it possible for myself and so many others to learn about being Jewish and grow in the most important part of our lives.

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Thank you so much for your encouraging words and for sharing your inspiring story.

God gives each of us a set of challenges. To those more capable of conquering difficulties, He gave bigger challenges. A challenge from God is a sign that He cares about us and has confidence in our ability to become great.

It sounds like you're doing great!

As for using the computer on Shabbat, that is prohibited. A foundation of Judaism is that we need to respect God's wishes, even if we think that doing otherwise is "for a good reason." Consider this story:

A king calls in his trusted minister and says: "I have an important mission for you to perform. Go to the neighboring kingdom and meet in the palace with their leaders. But remember one thing - under no circumstances must you remove your shirt during this meeting. Now go and do as I say."

The minister sets off on his merry way and soon arrives at the neighboring kingdom. There he heads straight for the palace where he meets with the King. In the midst of their discussion, he sees some of the king's officers pointing and laughing at him.

"Why are you laughing?" asks the visiting minister.

"Because we've never seen someone with such a pronounced hunchback as yourself," they say.

"What are you talking about? I'm not a hunchback!"

"Of course you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"We'll bet you one million dollars that you are!"

"Fine - I'll gladly take your bet."

"Okay, so take off your shirt and prove it."

At which point the minister remembers the parting words of the king... "under no circumstances must you remove your shirt during the meeting." Yet, the minister reasons, a million dollars would certainly bring added wealth to the king's coffers. I know I'm not a hunchback, so I'll surely win the bet. Of course, under these circumstances the king would approve...

The minister removes his shirt and proudly displays his perfect posture. With pride in his achievement, he holds out his hand, into which is placed a check for one million dollars.

The minister can barely contain his excitement. He quickly ends the meeting and runs back to give the wonderful news to his king. "I earned you a million dollars!" exclaims the minister. "It was easy. I only had to remove my shirt to prove that I wasn't a hunchback."

"You did what?!" shouts the king. "But I told you specifically not to remove your shirt. I trusted that you'd follow instructions, and so I bet the other king $10 million dollars that he couldn't get you to remove your shirt!"

The Torah tells us "Do not add or subtract from the mitzvahs." (Deut. 4:2) Jewish law is a precise metaphysical science. Consider a great work of art. Would you consider adding a few notes to a Bach fugue, or some brushstrokes to a Rembrandt portrait?!

Perfection, by definition, cannot be improved upon. Altering Torah law is an unacceptable implication that God is lacking.

The verse in Psalms 19:8 declares: "Torat Hashem Temimah" - the Torah of God is complete. For just as adding one wire to a transistor radio means it no longer can pick up reception, so too we mustn't tinker with Jewish law. The mitzvahs of God are perfect.

May the Almighty give you strength to continue your growth in Judaism.

In 1315, King Louis X of France called back the Jews who had been expelled a few decades earlier by King Louis IX. This marked a theme in Jewish-French life: expulsions and subsequent invitations to return. The French monarchy was trying to establish their land as the "new Jerusalem," and to fulfill this mission attempted several crusades to Israel. In 1615, King Louis XIII ordered that Christians were forbidden to speak with Jews, upon penalty of death. Eventually, in 1683, King Louis XIV expelled the Jews from the colony of Martinique.

When you experience joy, you feel good because your magnificent brain produces hormones called endorphins. These self-produced chemicals give you happy and joyful feelings.

Research on these biochemicals has proven that the brain-produced hormones enter your blood stream even if you just act joyful, not only when you really are happy. Although the joyful experience is totally imaginary and you know that it didn’t actually happen, when you speak and act as if that imaginary experience did happen, you get a dose of endorphins.

These chemicals are naturally produced by your brain. They are totally free and entirely healthy.

Many people find that this knowledge inspires them to create more joyful moments. It’s not just an abstract idea, but a physical reality.

There is no person on earth so righteous, who does only good and does not sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

Reading the suggestions for ridding oneself of character defects, someone might say, "These are all very helpful for someone who has character defects, but I do not see anything about myself that is defective."

In the above-cited verse, Solomon states what we should all know: no one is perfect. People who cannot easily find imperfections within themselves must have a perception so grossly distorted that they may not even be aware of major defects. By analogy, if a person cannot hear anything, it is not that the whole world has become absolutely silent, but that he or she has lost all sense of hearing and may thus not be able to hear even the loudest thunder.

In his monumental work, Duties of the Heart, Rabbeinu Bachaye quotes a wise man who told his disciples, "If you do not find defects within yourself, I am afraid you have the greatest defect of all: vanity." In other words, people who see everything from an "I am great/right" perspective will of course believe that they do no wrong.

When people can see no faults in themselves, it is generally because they feel so inadequate that the awareness of any personal defects would be devastating. Ironically, vanity is a defense against low self-esteem. If we accept ourselves as fallible human beings and also have a sense of self-worth, we can become even better than we are.

Today I shall...

be aware that if I do not find things within myself to correct, it may be because I am threatened by such discoveries.

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